Originally published October 15 2005
Government spends $100 million on unused ice for Katrina victims
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
In another strike against FEMA, truck drivers told stories of being routed and re-routed for two weeks, while carrying loads of ice for Katrina victims who subsequently received nothing in the disorganization.
When the definitive story of the confrontation between Hurricane Katrina and the United States government is finally told, one long and tragicomic chapter will have to be reserved for the odyssey of the ice.
Ninety-one thousand tons of ice cubes, that is, intended to cool food, medicine and sweltering victims of the storm.
Mr. Kostinec, 40, a driver for Universe Truck Lines of Omaha, was happy to help with the crisis.
At Emporia, Mr. Kostinec sat for an entire week, his trailer burning fuel around the clock to keep the ice frozen, as FEMA officials studied whether supplies originally purchased for Hurricane Katrina might be used for Hurricane Ophelia.
"I dragged that ice around for 4,100 miles, and it never got used," Mr. Kostinec said.
A former mortgage broker and Enron computer technician, he had learned to roll with the punches, and he was pleased to earn $4,500 for the trip, double his usual paycheck.
"All the truckers said the money was good.
Over about a week after the storm, FEMA ordered 211 million pounds of ice for Hurricane Katrina, said Rob Holland, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers, which buys the ice that FEMA requests under a contract with IAP Worldwide Services of Cape Canaveral, Fla.
In the end, Mr. Holland said, 59 percent of the ice was trucked to storage freezers all over the country to await the next disaster; some has been used for Hurricane Rita.
Asked about trips like Mr. Kostinec's, Nicol Andrews, a FEMA spokeswoman, said: "He was put on call for a need and the need was not realized, so he went home.
Not all of the ice delivery trips, by an estimated 4,000 drivers, ended in frustration.
After two Universe Truck Lines drivers spent more than two weeks on the road to no purpose, the company decided it had had enough.
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